The Slave-Trader’s Letter-BookCharles Lamar, the Wanderer, and Other Tales of the African Slave Trade

Jim Jordan

Seventy long-lost letters shed light on the buildup to the Civil War

Reviews

“Jim Jordan has given us a fascinating look at little-known yet divisive events that occurred during the years leading up to the Civil War, particularly the illegal, transatlantic African slave trade. He brings them to life through the provocative and often outrageous words of a man involved in those activities. Mr. Jordan’s thorough research provides a compelling and comprehensive account of the infamous Wanderer expeditions and the men behind them.”
—John Duncan, professor emeritus, Armstrong University

"This intriguing and educational book is in two parts. The first, a thorough and well-researched biography of one of antebellum Georgia’s most famous scoundrels; the second, a professionally edited and annotated printing of Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar’s long-lost and recently rediscovered letter-book. Both parts are well worth the read by scholars and the general public. Charles Lamar was the instigator of the infamous voyage of the Wanderer. He was a hero to southern secessionists and a criminal to northern abolitionists. That makes this book important to all those interested in the antebellum and Civil War history of Georgia."
—Lawrence S. Rowland, coeditor of The Civil War in South Carolina

In 1858 Savannah businessman Charles Lamar, in violation of U.S. law, organized the shipment of hundreds of Africans on the luxury yacht Wanderer to Jekyll Island, Georgia. The four hundred survivors of the Middle Passage were sold into bondage. This was the first successful documented slave landing in the United States in about four decades and shocked a nation already on the path to civil war.

In 1886 the North American Review published excerpts from thirty of Lamar’s letters from the 1850s, reportedly taken from his letter book, which describe his criminal activities. However, the authenticity of the letters was in doubt until very recently. In 2009, researcher Jim Jordan found a cache of private papers belonging to Charles Lamar’s father, stored for decades in an attic in New Jersey. Among the documents was Charles Lamar’s letter book, confirming him as the author. The Lamar documents, including the Slave-Trader’s Letter Book, are now at the Georgia Historical Society and are available for research.

This book has two parts. The first recounts the flamboyant and reckless life of Lamar himself, including Lamar’s involvement in southern secession, the slave trade, and a plot to overthrow the government of Cuba. A portrait emerges at odds with Lamar’s previous image as a savvy entrepreneur and principled rebel. Instead, we see a man who was often broke and whose volatility sabotaged him at every turn. His involvement in the slave trade was driven more by financial desperation than southern defiance. The second part presents the “Slave-Trader’s Letter-Book.” Together with annotations, these seventy long-lost letters shed light on the lead-up to the Civil War from the remarkable perspective of a troubled, and troubling, figure.